brush preview autocolor save save lasso keyboard layers tools float engine angle portrait pixel dark
KRESKA.art logo

Free drawing and painting web app for everyone.

Sketch. Paint. Enjoy.

Start painting
continue or start new canvas
Choose reference
start with a sample image
kreska.art new painting app for every artist to enjoy

Unique just like you.

KRESKA.art is a free drawing and painting app that runs seamlessly in any browser. It features a simple, clean interface, a proprietary painting engine, and a large collection of brushes, allowing your art to be truly unique and amazing, just like you.

Your painting almost draws itself.

Tracing with auto-color is magical!

The image you see below took roughly 30 seconds to draw over a reference image using a charcoal brush with auto-color enabled.

kreska.art auto color feature

Joy of creating art.

KRESKA.art elevates painting from reference to a whole new level. Tracing is made simple with a dedicated button to quickly display your reference. You can easily adjust the reference image opacity at any time using a slider. Additionally, it enhances color picking. Set your brush to automatically pick colors and instantly transfer reference image colors to your drawing.

Start painting Choose reference

Unclutter your screen.

Access your reference with a single tap.

Quickly peek at your reference.

A dedicated button instantly previews your reference image. Pressing the "peek" button displays your reference on top of your drawing with full opacity, releasing the button returns you to your drawing. This button also features a hidden function: pressing and moving towards the image activates a color picker, allowing you to quickly select colors from your reference image.

kreska.art quick peek your reference

You also have traditional preview panel available if you like your reference to be present on your screen all the time.

Use popular gestures.

KRESKA.art supports popular gestures.

KRESKA.art supports some of the most popular gestures: two-finger tap to undo, three-finger tap to redo, four-finger tap to hide or show the interface, one-finger press and hold to open the color picker, pinch and rotate with two fingers to zoom or rotate your canvas.

Works everywhere.

The KRESKA.art application supports multiple devices.

KRESKA.art works on PC, Mac, and Linux, as well as on Android and iOS, both desktop and mobile, in Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Brave, or any other modern browser.

More features.

Super fast with no installation

KRESKA.art is fully web-based, with optimized code to ensure fast loading and smooth performance. Since it runs directly in your browser, there's no need for any installation, just open the app and start creating instantly.

Reference and tracing

I usually pasted my references on one side of the canvas and drew on the other side. Now the entire canvas is free and the reference image is available at the press of a button.

Smooth painting engine

KRESKA.art has proprietary painting engine that was built from scratch. Without compromises I was polishing it until it was perfect. Drawing experience is anything you ever encountered, fluid, responsive, satisfying, simply unique.

Support for layers

KRESKA.art supports layers with basic features like adding, deleting, merging, duplicating, fast clearing, and controlling layer opacity. You can also enable alpha lock to paint only on the opaque portions of the layer, which are the areas that were painted before.

Advanced brushes

Choose from an ever-growing collection of over 60 beautiful handmade brushes. The selection includes basic round brushes, soft airbrushes, sketching brushes resembling real pencils, watercolor brushes, charcoal brushes, pixel brushes, and more. Each brush can be used for painting, erasing, blending, and with the auto-color feature. Many of the brushes recognize the direction of your digital pen strokes for maximum realism.

Color picking

There are many ways for picking color, press and hold with one finger, click the eyedropper icon from the color window or the floating toolkit or use the keyboard shortcut "i". To quickly pick color from your reference image press the big "peek" button on the vertical bar and move towards the center of the screen or press "p" and move you pencil. Each brush can paint with your reference image colors applied automatically which feels magical.

Pen support with tilt

KRESKA.art supports all types of input: pen, touch, and even mouse. All brushes support pressure sensitivity, which you can turn on or off for a given brush to control brush size or brush opacity. Many brushes also support pen direction and tilting, a feature available on the iPad with Apple Pencil or on professional graphics tablets like Wacom or Huion.

Keyboard shortcuts

KRESKA.art supports many keyboard shortcuts, some commonly used like "ctrl+z" to undo "space" to move the canvas around, some are unique like the peek "p" button to quickly peek at your reference image. Most of the shortcuts are shown on the "Floating toolkit panel", select "Toggle toolkit float" from the menu.

Additional preview panel

If you want your reference image always available next to your painting you can use the preview panel. Select "Toggle preview panel" from the menu. This panel has some unique features, it can mimic the movement of our painting on the screen.

Tools float panel

Tolls float (sometimes called touch docker) can help you access all the application features even without keyboard or on devices without touch support

Pixel art brushes

Create beautiful pixel art using various pixel brushes. Combine them with reference image and auto-color feature to create stunning pixel art with ease.

Lasso tool for hard edges

You can utilize the lasso tool to define a specific area for painting, ensuring your brush stays inside the selection. This makes it easy to create both hard and soft edges.

Auto save feature

KRESKA.art saves your work automatically in browsers storage and will restore your drawing even if you reload the page

PS

.PSD file format support

In addition to the proprietary .kreska file format, you can also save your work in the .psd format, allowing you to open it in Adobe Photoshop or other applications compatible with .PSD files. KRESKA.art itself can also open basic .PSD files.

Dark mode

Chose between two color modes, dark theme and light theme, it will be hard for you to decide as both are beautiful

API

Simple API

The simple URL API in KRESKA.art enables you to create links that automatically load images from the internet directly into the app. For website owners, this means your visitors can use the images you host as drawing references within KRESKA.art. This feature is especially valuable for creators of drawing tutorials, as it allows students to seamlessly draw on or reference tutorial images directly in the app.
Find more in the "API for your website" section.

KRESKA.art for Procreate

Effortless export to Procreate

If you use KRESKA.art in Safari browser on your iOS device and also own Procreate, you can easily transfer your KRESKA.art creations to Procreate. Simply click "Share image" from the "File options" menu and select Procreate from the list of available applications. The image will be saved directly to your Procreate library.

KRESKA.art for Procreate

No AI promise

I promise that KRESKA.art will always remain 100% free of AI features. I believe in empowering human creativity, not replacing it with algorithms. While others may rush to automate art, I am committed to preserving the authenticity and fulfillment that comes from true creative expression. Here, your ideas, your skills, and your vision are what truly matter. This is a space where real artists thrive, and where creativity remains 100% human.

Main interface elements.

kreska.art application supports multiple devices

Top horizontal bar

Panel section

0. KRESKA.art logo (click to hide top menu)
1. Menu panel
2. Layers panel
3. Colors panel

Selected brush selection

4. Painting brush (click twice to select brush for painting)
5. Eraser (click twice to select brush for erasing)
6. Blending brush (click twice to select brush for blending)

Brush settings

7. Brush size control toggle (change size with pressure)
8. Brush opacity control toggle (change opacity with pressure)
9. Auto color picker toggle (brush will pick color from the reference image automatically)

Tools section

10. Lasso tool (paint within selected area)
11. Values check (press to change your painting to grayscale)
12. Reference image placement (move the reference image above or underneath your painting, use button 18 to change opacity)
13. Mirror your painting (flips your painting vertically)
14. Clear layer (deletes content of selected layer)

Left vertical bar

15. Brush size slider
16. Brush opacity slider
17. Peek reference image (preview your reference image while you press the button)
18. Reference image opacity (most useful when the image is on top - use button 12)
19. Undo button
19. Redo button

Floating panels

21. Main panel to toggle between menu, layers, color panel and brushes
22. Additional reference image preview window
23. Floating tools panel to access every tool on devices where touch gestures are not supported (like tap, pinch, rotate)

API for your website

URL API

If you own a website that hosts images and want to give your visitors a way to use them as drawing references, KRESKA.art is the perfect solution. This will not only engage your users further but also encourage them to revisit your site for more drawing inspiration.

Currently, Kreska.art lets you create custom links that include reference image URLs. This means you can create a link that will automatically load a reference image from your website or the internet directly into a new KRESKA.art drawing. Simply paste the complete image address into the "ref" parameter of the KRESKA.art app URL. For example:

https://kreska.art/app/?ref=https://kreska.art/reference/3.jpg

**Important Note:** The image address should start with https://, also the website where the image is hosted needs to allow for CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing). If the image doesn't load, it means the server does not allow for opening images on other websites.

More examples:

https://kreska.art/app/?ref=https://images.pexels.com/photos/17708522/pexels-photo-17708522.jpeg
https://kreska.art/app/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.unsplash.com%2Fphoto-1723398466717-12d0c8f6299c%3Ffm%3Djpg%26q%3D60%26w%3D3000%26ixlib%3Drb-4.0.3%26ixid%3DM3wxMjA3fDB8MHxmZWF0dXJlZC1waG90b3MtZmVlZHw1fHx8ZW58MHx8fHx8
https://kreska.art/app/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.lexica.art%2Ffull_webp%2F12456d63-b415-4c05-9e47-f88ed0526017

Frequently asked questions.

Yes, KRESKA.art is free with no limits and no ads, one thing you need to remember is that you can only work on one painting at a time because of the browser's limitations, if you want to work on a different painting without loosing your current work then save the current work to ".kreska" file, go to the MENU then click "Save layers to .kreska file", or use a different browser, not a different browser tab but a different browser brand like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, because KRESKA.art keeps your work in browser's database in one place.

Theoretically yes but it is not recommended because both will write to the same browser database so each stroke will overwrite data from the previous image, history will be messed up and auto save will only save one image i.e. the last one you were painting on.
If you insist to do that use two different browsers, not a different browser tab or window but a different browser brand like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
If you really insist on using single browser keep in mind you will face not only storage but also memory issues and remember not to reload your tab if you have two paintings active because the browser has only one in its database, reloading a tab will load the last image in the database storage.

On an existing canvas:
Open the menu panel, click "Load reference image", select the image, once loaded you can adjust the size and rotate the image, click the brush icon on top to return to the main application screen and start painting.
While creating new canvas:
Open the menu panel, click "New drawing" choose one of the four options in the "From File/Camera" section for example "Resize canvas to match full photo size", select the image, once loaded you can adjust the size and rotate the image, click the brush icon on top to return to the main application screen and start painting.

Open the menu panel, click "File info"

Change the desired color on the color tab, open the menu panel, click "Active color as background" in the Drawing options section. Clicking the button again will reset the background color to white.
To make the background transparent click "Transparent background" in the Drawing options section. Clicking the button again will reset the background color to white.

The following shortcuts are supported
"t" - Show floating Tools panel
"w" - Show reference image preview Window
"h" or "u" - hide/show user interface
"," and "." - change reference image opacity
"p" - peek at the reference image
"f" - reference image placement (move the reference image above or underneath your painting, use button "," or "." to change opacity)
"a" - toggle auto-color picking (reference image is required)
"1" - Open menu panel
"2" - Open layers panel
"3" - Open color panel
"d" - switch to painting brush
"e" - switch to eraser
"b" - switch to blending brush
"s" - toggle size change with pressure
"o" - toggle opacity change with pressure
"l" - lasso tool
"v" - values check (press to change your painting to grayscale)
"i" - eyedropper tool
"[" and "]" - change brush size
"m" - mirror your painting (flips your painting vertically)
"z" - zoom/scale the canvas view
"r" - rotate the canvas view
"space" - move the canvas around
";" and "'' - change pan opacity
"ctrl+z" - undo
"del" - clear current layer
"ctrl+y" - redo
"ctrl+v" - paste image from clipboard (this will not work on images copied from websites), copy an image from your local folders or press Ctrl+⊞+s (Ctrl key + Windows key + s key pressed together) to select and copy images from websites.

kreska.art keyboard shortcuts